Chapter Text
Thack!
The plastic puck clattered across the ice, weaving its way through thickets of legs.
Swarms of pre-teens launched themselves after it like seagulls pursuing a meal, sticks at the ready and desperation in the air. For the clock was counting down, and the scores were tied at 2 points apiece.
The tension in the air could've been cut with a knife, it was that thick, and yet all hope, it seemed, was in the hands of the new kid from Minnesota.
Eyes narrowed with determination, this petite blonde went by the name of Riley. Her shoulder length hair was dragged into a tiny ponytail at the back, to make sure it stayed out of the way during these dire moments, because the last thing she wanted was to beat the burly ass defender, and then lose to the classic 'hair in the eye'. But perhaps all of this paranoia was in her head; after all, that's where all the excitement was happening.
"C'mon, c'monnnn..." A red blocky emotion known as Anger growled at the controls, punching at whatever dials and buttons might have made a difference. "Time's runnin' out, dammit! 23 seconds!"
"Ohh, calm it Anger! Win or lose, I'm sure Dad'll be proud of us!" A slender, yellow emotion named Joy tried to placate his trademark impatience. "Why, we'll get a piggyback ride home for sure!"
"That's great, Joy..." Anger bit back his sarcasm, "Now if we could just concentrate on the NOW instead of the AFTER, that'd be-"
"Ugh, did you see the pits on that guy in the stands?" A third emotion interrupted. Sweeping a veil of envy-green hair from her face, the like coloured Disgust clearly wasn't paying much attention either.
"Distracting, you guys!" Anger roared, charging forwards with two of the many joysticks to illustrate this. "Ugh, women. They just don't understand sports, huh Fear?"
"The heart's pumping at like 140 beats a minute! It's gonna explode!" Anger's 'ray of hope' screamed into his left ear. Clad in what looked like a black and white sweater vest, with purple pants and a bow tie, the purple emotion continued to emit high pitched whiny noises, with no apparent direction or purpose.
"Ugh! Is ANYONE but me paying attention to this game?!" Anger cried out in his frustration, carefully weaving another joystick in order to keep control of both his stress and the game. Meanwhile, Fear was panicking, Disgust was repulsed, and Joy was daydreaming. Anger dragged his free hand across his face, watching the final seconds tick down on the clock...
"What if... We don't make it?"
"Well, then a draw's still better than a loss, so that'll be okay," Anger grunted at the sullen sounding voice. "It's an away game anyway, so it's still good for a piggyb-"
But Anger was stopped mid sentence by his own realisation. Daring tear his eyes off the game for but a moment, he spied the tiny blue emotion staring intently at the ensuing madness on screen.
"Sadness?!" He spluttered out of surprise. "H-how long you been there?!"
"...most of the game." Sadness' voice was caught between a sigh and a deadpan, clearly a little unhappy about being forgotten. Again.
"Well, don't just stand there! Gimme a hand already!" Anger instructed, madly throwing the levers and twisting dials in a desperate attempt to keep control.
"You actually... Want my help?" Sadness' eyes widened in astonishment.
"Yeah, of course!" A gruff Anger answered as calmly as the situation would allow, "you're the only one payin' attention other than me, dammit!"
"Oh... O-okay!" Sadness let out a meek smile, sidling alongside a frenetic Anger, "w-what can I do?"
"We gotta keep her stable." Anger advised, much less stressed now that his workload had been reduced. "Just keep things balanced for fifteen seconds or so. If we can do that, with a little bit of luck, we're takin' this game!"
"Umm... But what if we miss?"
"Then I'm pretty sure we're still in for reward of some kind. After all, we ain't losin'."
"...will there be ice cream?"
"I dunno, yes?"
"I like ice cream!" Sadness cried, as she upped the ante on the controls.
"Yeah! Now we're gettin' it!" Anger roared, this time with happiness. "Alright, twelve seconds. Let's make 'em count!"
Working in what was best described as 'clumsy coordination', Sadness and Anger made their best efforts to bring that puck home. After all, why settle for a draw when you've got a chance of winning?
Her legs were feeling wobbly, her heart was pounding in her ears, and she seemed much more aware of her breathing than normal. However, sandwiched in between two tenacious defenders, Riley Anderson wasn't giving up just yet!
With a stylish pirouette-esque twist outsmarting the one on the right, who overestimated his shot and spun out after missing her, Riley was much more able to focus on the remaining defender; a skinny guy who looked a shade older than herself. All the while, that goal drew closer, as did the countdown; they were down to just six seconds!
"C'mon..." Anger was visibly sweating, watching Riley negotiate the puck from side to side, her evasive manoeuvres proving effective against this second defender, "just a little closer..."
"Four seconds, Anger!" Fear shrieked, suddenly tuning in. "FOUR SECONDS!"
"I know, dammit!" Anger lashed back at him. "But ya can't just blindly-"
"Shoot!" Sadness gasped, launching two sticks forward at the same time, and watching as the puck was launched from Riley's hockey stick...
Anger's jaw hit the floor.
The defender was unable to grab a hold of it.
The clock was still counting down.
The goalkeeper was poised and ready...
Three...
Two...
The goalkeeper lunged.
One...
'thackadack!'
And like the revving of an engine, the crowd slowly realised what happened. It started off as confused mumbling, before building, and suddenly there was an eruption of cheering!
Three short blasts escaped the referee's whistle, and even supporters of the rival team were politely applauding, in celebration of what few could deny, was an incredible climax.
A last second tiebreaker!
"We did it!" Anger literally erupted with excitement, picking up Sadness and squashing her in a huge bear hug. "Well DONE, Sadness! You helped score the winning goal!"
"Yeah, you really did well!" Fear chipped in, his nerves having subsided now that the game was over. "I can't wait for that adrenaline rush!"
"Hunh? Well would you look at that! We won!" A previously oblivious Joy chimed, grabbing Disgust's attention, "...oh. So we did."
"...heh." The little blue emotion let out the smallest of smiles, having met with living proof that she actually made a positive impact on Riley's life. Resting on the shoulders of both Fear and Anger, it was a rare moment for Sadness. As Riley herself was lifted into the air by her team mates, the tiny blue emotion, for once, wasn't so blue. In fact, one could even say she was happy!
A light, warm wind began to blow around Headquarters, filling them all with a strange, fuzzy feeling; meanwhile a crystal orb dropped down from the archives, and rolled down the tubes before presenting itself on the central console.
"Is that...?" Joy mumbled, eyes widening with shock.
"I-it's a new core memory!" Fear cried, lowering Sadness back down to the ground. "It's gotta be our first good memory of San Francisco!"
"...and we made that." Sadness stated, for once not questioning an event. "C-can I touch it?"
"Of course we can!" Anger urged her forwards. "After all, we're the only ones who did anything in that hockey match!"
Both emotions held the core memory between them, and the little orb began to slowly change colour, from its original empty grey, to a jazzy fusion of red and blue, the divide between the colours meandering across the centre like a river.
"Alright! San Fran is finally starting to feel like home!" Joy leapt into the air, all the while noticing something happening outside of headquarters, "...guys, look!"
Joy beckoned the others to her location, while Anger carefully placed the new core emotion in its console and met up with the others.
"What's happening to Hockey Island?!" He grunted. "We didn't break it, did we?"
"It's growing." Sadness smiled gently, watching as the red, pyramid-like shapes began to emerge. Twisting and metallic, the new structure stretched out towards Family Island, and linked up with it!
"...why are they combining?" Fear seemed worried, as the new structure joined onto Family Island's Golden Gate Bridge feature, stretching into an even longer, more impressive one.
"Because San Francisco is important to Riley now." Joy explained. "Both family and hockey are here, so now they're connected!"
"...I think?"
"Well, it doesn't matter WHY." Anger felt the need to interject. "The important thing is, the core memories are developing further. And that's good! Hell, they can even combine now!"
"Great observation, Captain Obvious." Disgust swept her fringe, causing Anger to boil internally at her biting sarcasm. "...Eugh, what is that noise?"
"Noise?" Joy muttered, returning to the command console and 'fine tuning' the ears, "what noise?"
Five emotions listened intently, oblivious to Riley's other senses, which would've given them a much faster answer. Gorging on ice cream, the twelve year old was walking with both of her parents down a hallway, only to come across an unusual noise from one of the rooms...